Pastoral Movements and Movements in Pastoralism: Shifting Traditions and Institutions of Modern Management Strategies in Laikipia Kenya

Pastoralism;Laikipia;Kenya;Mpala Ranch and Research Centre;Maasai;Natural Resources and Environment

Yurco, KaylaPersha, Lauren ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Pastoralism;    Laikipia;    Kenya;    Mpala Ranch and Research Centre;    Maasai;    Natural Resources and Environment;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/85796/KaylaYurco_thesis_final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This collection of papers explores the emergence of, implications for, and justice issuessurrounding a new tradition of pastoralism in central Kenya: conservation-driven privatizationand commercialization of traditional knowledge and environmental labor. It draws on fieldworkcompleted for my master’s thesis during May to August 2010 among pastoralists in Laikipia,Kenya, at the Mpala Ranch and Research Centre and the nearby Maasai communities of Ilmotiokand Tiemamut. Through semi-structured interviews and household surveys, I found thatconservation and development agendas in this region are contributing to a new wave oflivelihood shifts for local pastoralists in which individuals are transitioning from being animalowners to animal ;;caretakers’ employed by powerful conservation groups.At large, my thesis focuses on the social outcomes of these livelihood shifts, including shifts inthe sharing of traditional knowledge, decision-making strategies, and associated environmentaljustice complexities of a new kind of labor-based rather than landscape-based mobility. Usinginterdisciplinary means and different focal points, these papers explore that theme closely,including issues surrounding resource dependency, insider/outsider knowledge and resourcecontrol, shifts in economic norms on individual and landscape scales, and associated questions ofcultural transition and justice.The overarching research question in these discussions is what are the tradeoffs of variousoutcomes of contemporary coupled pastoral management and conservation strategies in anintegrated natural-human system? More specifically, what carries over from traditional herdingpatterns and processes, and what is gained and/or lost when there are attempts by conservationefforts to transform this system? For example, to what extent have conservation strategies suchas the Mpala model done away with the socio-spatial mobility and use of ecologicalheterogeneity by implementing fixed boundaries on the landscape, or have they instead increasedflexibility by altering the natural landscape (i.e. through infrastructural development)?The introduction in this series serves as a broad introduction to this landscape, its ecology and itssociety, its history and its present challenges, as well as a more focused introduction to framingmy study sites for further discussion. Beyond this introduction, the three following papersattempt to capture the holistic ;;identity” of this complex multi-part, multi-person, multilandscape,multi-national endeavor. My intent is to capture the experiential identity of all ofthese efforts as one that is not static, drawing from oral histories, present experiences, and theoryin relevant literature to understand the institutional and cross-continental complexities ofconservation and development attempts in this landscape.Part one then focuses on shifting norms of perceptions of land use and land use change in theselandscapes. I rely on information represented in my surveys of pastoralists at Mpala and in thesurrounding community group ranches. I explore tolerance of wildlife by pastoralists at Mpalaand their associated challenges versus tolerance of wildlife by pastoralists in the group ranchesand their challenges; such tolerance levels lend information to a transition of knowledge,information output, and communication networks in both landscapes that I compare and contrastacross two communities in the same landscape.5Part two discusses the privatization and commercialization of traditional knowledge andenvironmental labor, and I hypothesize on the ecological consequences and social outcomes ofthis privatization. I draw from the literature in other African pastoral contexts where similarquestions are being asked, i.e. of the Maasina in Mali, the FulBe in Côte d’Ivoire, and the Fulaniin other West African nations. Within the realm of political ecology and institutional analyses, Iwrite about the shift from animal ownership to animal caretaking and the implications forinstitutions that are changing norms of mobility in these ecosystems. This paper relies heavily onmy ethnographic fieldnotes and informal interviews from key informants, as well as a literaturereview of the privatization of knowledge and pastoralism.Finally, part three explores the theme of technology and transition in this landscape closely,namely with regard to the changes brought to the experience of pastoralism with the influx oftechnology. The comparatively large budget and profit margin of Mpala and similar ranches inthe region allow for the use of technology in a way that is not seen in other parcels of Laikipia.Here, pastoralists use cell phones to aid in daily and seasonal decision-making but have difficultyfinding infrastructure for charging those phones; some use vehicles for transportation or movinginjured livestock; radios give warning of dangerous wildlife nearby; and expensive, easilytransportable metal fences are used to rotate cattle pastures more frequently than in nearbyMaasai group ranches to try to control environmental degradation. Major themes consideredinclude the relationship of technological resources to sustainability, knowledge and resourcecontrol, shifts in financial agendas, and transitions in traditional knowledge networks.Collectively, these papers attempt to offer at once snapshots of a landscape complex in itshistory, present use, and future potential; as well as a holistic overview of a natural-humansystem in transition, one that is increasingly being recognized for its importance as a leader toconservation in East Africa. In the following analyses I suggest that despite this recognition inthe conservation world, there are in fact many more questions to be answered, more socialconcerns needing to be addressed, and more knowledge to be gleaned before this system is usedas a model for conservation, pastoralism, or development in this landscape or elsewhere inAfrica.